Are there harmless sexual activities that are immoral? If all harmless activities are morally permissible, the answer is obviously "no" --- as long as an activity is harmless, it is not immoral, whether sexual or not (people may understand "harmless" differently, but that does not affect the point).
But suppose a harmless activity may still be immoral, and suppose some sexual activities are harmless. On these suppositions, the question whether there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral does not have a clear answer. However, for those who are interested in the question and think it is important to have an answer to it, there are two views they need to distinguish:
(S) If there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral, they are immoral by virtue of their sexual aspects.
(N) If there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral, they are immoral by virtue of some non-sexual aspects of the activities; it just happens to be the case that these are sexual activities.
People who believe that sexual activities in themselves are amoral (i.e. neither moral nor immoral) cannot consistently accept (S). That is, they should accept (N). But accepting (N) implies seeing the sexual aspects of the activities as irrelevant to their being immoral or not. For them, if there are harmless activities that are immoral, it should not make any moral difference whether the activities are sexual or not, just as it should not make any moral difference whether the activities involved people who wear glasses or not.
Thus, to see the question whether there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral as a morally significant question, one has to accept (S). And to consistently accept (S), one has to believe that at least some sexual activities are not amoral --- they are in themselves either moral or immoral. Now unless people who believe that at least some sexual activities are not amoral also believe that all those sexual activities are moral, they already have an answer to the question whether there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral, namely, "yes".
It seems to be the case that people who are interested in the question whether there are harmless sexual activities that are immoral usually think it is a morally significant question, and it also seems to be the case that these people usually answer (or are inclined to answer) "yes" to the question. Given the above analysis, this should not be surprising at all.
Very cool follow-up, Wai-hung. I like your analysis! I still think it remains clear what an example of a harmless sexual activity would be. Though you've clearly delineated the argument, can you think of an example of a sexual activity that is both harmless and immoral?
ReplyDeleteI guess you mean "it remains unclear what an example of a harmless immoral sexual activity would be".
Deleteindeed, what would an example of a sexual activity that is both harmless and immoral?
DeleteI can't think of an example.
Deleteif we can't think of an example of a sexual activity that is harmless and immoral, is it pointless to discuss harmless sexual immorality?
DeleteWell, there are people who think there is harmless sexual immorality and they may be able to give some examples.
DeleteA very apt summary of what was being teased out in the Q&A before we adjourned. If one believes that sexual acts are inherently amoral, then all the philosophically interesting questions lie in the relationship between harm and immorality.
ReplyDelete//People who believe that sexual activities in themselves are amoral (i.e. neither moral nor immoral) cannot consistently accept (S). That is, they should accept (N).//
ReplyDeletewhy should they accept N?
isn't it their belief that sexual activities in themselves are amoral?
Since they believe that sexual activities are amoral, they don't believe that any sexual activity can be immoral (or moral) because of its sexual aspect. So, if a sexual activity is immoral, it must be because of its non-sexual aspect.
Deletefollowing this line of reasoning, does it mean that every activity A can be viewed of having 2 aspects : an A aspect and a non-A aspect, like sexual activity having a sexual aspect and a non-sexual aspect in it?
DeleteAn activity can have many aspects. If one of these aspects is the A aspect, then any of the other aspects is a non-A aspect.
Deleteit is then very convoluted to judge if an activity is immoral or not 'cause its A aspect may be not, but its non-A aspect may be ...
Deleteor, given that non-A aspect may encompass a lot more aspects than A aspect itself, chances are high that almost all activities can be described as immoral ...